"Two days ago I met Sir H. Robinson, who, of course had very much to do with Gordon in S. Africa. He had a very strong objection to him and said, "When I heard he had been appointed, I said that I knew the Govt. had chosen a man for their servant who would prove their master: and a mad one too." He said that he had been sent to deal with an awful brute among the natives who was brought to face him with great difficulty. As soon as he saw him, however, Gordon fell upon his neck and called him a brother in Christ; which was quite contrary to official precedent. Robinson added that there was no one so undecided in word or so decided in action: that he would telegraph one thing in the morning, another thing in the evening, and a third thing on the next day. The only other person I have met who knew him was Sir Bartle Frere, who said that he was impossible to deal with; "Tell him a thing's for his interest, he'll do the opposite; tell him it's his duty and nothing will keep him from doing it, and doing it the shortest way.""
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Cecil Spring Rice, letter (1884), quoted in The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice: A Record, Volume I, ed. Stephen Gwynn (1929), p. 33
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon
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Charles George Gordon
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